In her discussion on Financial Literacy, Christy
Mae Espejon of AOWCI gave emphasis on the value and concept of saving,
investment, and budgeting of OFW’s income. Espejon also facilitated several
exercises to elaborate her discussion among the participants.

Likewise, other topics during the seminar such as
Migration Realities and Simple Business Plan Making were tackled by OWWA
personnel.

“We are indeed grateful that after we have been
organized months ago, our request to have this kind of informational training
was finally realized with the help of OWWA,” expressed TODA president Fernando
Otaza in local dialect.

OWWA Caraga responded to the request of TODA
members in consonance with its relentless endeavor to provide reintegration
services among OFW organizations and capacitate them with various
organizational developmental trainings.

OWWA Family Welfare Officer Ronilo Maningo, who
assisted the organization on the process of establishing their organization,
asserted that the said training is only the first of the series of trainings
intended to strengthen and develop the OFW Family Circles (OFC) towards
becoming self-reliant organizations.

“Hopefully, for 2016 program planning we can
encompass Talacogon OFC along with other OFW organizations to have the set of
training programs,” bared Maningo. (OWWA-Caraga/PIA-Caraga)

SurSur nears threshold of food scarcity to feed
3,000 evacuees

By Greg Tataro, Jr.

TANDAG CITY, Surigao del Sur, Nov. 3 (PIA) – Amid
the mounting problem of “sanitation and hygiene” exacerbated by the start of
the downpour of monsoon rains five days ago, Governor Johnny Pimentel revealed
that funds for the food provisions intended for some 3,000 evacuees who
continue to take shelter at the Surigao del Sur Sports Center would only last
until the mid of this month of November.

He said during the flag ceremony program on Monday
“We are now looking for other donors. I
called up other institutions—BDO will be coming over, so hopefully makatabang
sila (they can be of help).”

Governor Pimentel pointed out that “An ato food
provisions from the provincial government mokabat pa nan two weeks. So kutob November 15 pwede pang makaya pa
nato yaon. . . after that wala na’y atong. . .(Our food provisions from the
provincial government will only last for about two weeks. So until Novermber 15, we can still afford to
feed them. . . after that we have no more).”

However, the provincial chief executive expressed
optimism his administration could still hold on.

“We hope we can find a solution,” he stressed.

Pimentel cited another worry, saying that “because
five days na ang ulan. . . sigurado ako yaon mga bata ngad-on magsugod na
pagpangasakit. And then, not only that, we have 89 pregnant women na
kauban nila. An 19 nanganak na. You can just imagine katignaw ngad-on. .
.(because of the five-day downpour of rain. . . I’m pretty sure children out
there will start to get sick. And
then, not only that, we have 89 pregnant
women among them (evacuees). Nineteen of
whom had already given birth. You can
just imagine how chilly their situation is out there. . .)”

Meanwhile, the governor admitted that early on
there had been quite a number of donors on basic needs, but as usual they only
gave once.

Likewise, Governor Pimentel, disclosed the
BFP-Tandag City had already given up on supplying water using their “fire
trucks.”

However, he was so thankful that the International
Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had taken over the job using a similar truck
for water supply that can address the problem on “hygiene and sanitation.”

Pimentel told capitol employees that pending
solution to the demands, particularly the capture of the three suspects behind
the killings of Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos, and Bello Sinzo, nobody would
know when the evacuees could get back home to their respective communities.
(NGBT/Radyo ng Bayan-Tandag/PIA-Surigao del Sur)

The 32-year old OFW Gemma T. Guinanas is a
resident of Brgy. Pianing, this city.
Guinanas, a first timer, left the country sometime in July 2015 and
served as a household service worker in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

However, her employment lasted only for three
months after she ran away from her employer to escape from the maltreatment of
her female boss. She sought shelter at the Philippine Embassy and was housed at
the Bahay Kalinga of the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Riyadh.

Before departing from the country to work abroad,
aspiring OFWs are required to undergo the Pre-departure Orientation Seminar
(PDOS) for contract familiarization, profile of the country of destination,
stages of the OFWs life, health and safety, airport procedures and government
programs and services.

On the other hand, OFW Shella Lane C. Dalagan is
not new towards overseas work. She has already worked in Qatar in 2011 but did
not finish her contract. A health condition prevented her from carrying out her
work and compelled her to return home in Carmen, Agusan del Norte.

The pressing educational needs of her daughter,
now a third year college student, forced Shella to go back overseas. She left
for Dubai on December 2014. Her employment sailed smoothly until the same ill
health she once had recurred. Her employer took her to her foreign agency after
which she was sent back to the Philippines.

OFWs Gemma and Shella were assisted by OWWA
personnel at the Manila International Airport and were accommodated at the OWWA
Halfway House while their papers were processed for travel to Butuan City.

The two were escorted by the OWWA Caraga personnel
to their homes as part of the repatriation program of the agency. They were
likewise introduced to the Balik Pinas!, Balik Hanapbuhay!, a reintegration
program which provides livelihood assistance of Php 10,000.00 for displaced and
distressed OFWs. (OWWA-Caraga/PIA-Caraga)

LCEs, info officers and media gather for
PhilHealth SHInES in Caraga

By Dr. Israel Francis A. Pargas

BUTUAN CITY, Nov. 3 (PIA) - A huge success.

This is how the recently concluded Social Health
Insurance Education Series (SHInES) in Caraga can be described, if one goes by
the number of participants who attended the activity. The two-day orientation
held at the Almont Inland Resort, this city brought in some 400 participants
from the local government units, media, academe, national government agencies
and non-government organization-partners, region-wide.

About 27 media practitioners from different
tri-media outfits, 58 information officers of government and non-government
offices, and representatives from civic organizations and the academe attended
the SHInES for the multi-sectoral audience held on the first day.

The SHInES for Local Chief Executives (LCEs)
gathered almost 250 participants that included 15 mayors and representatives
from the different LGUs in the region, and the governor of Agusan del
Norte. PhilHealth officers and staff
members from various Local Health Insurance Offices in the region also came to
learn more about new developments and updates on membership and benefits.

PhilHealth Caraga Regional Vice President for
Caraga Johnny Sychua welcomed the participants to the SHInES for media and gave
a rundown of the topics to be discussed.
“We want to share with you the importance of this activity, why we are
conducting this for all of you, since you are our partners in sharing the right
information to our members,” Sychua said.
He added that, “our agenda include IECs on ALAGA Ka series, ReachOut,
and other relevant activities that we regularly conduct.”

PhilHealth’s executive vice president and chief
operating officer Ramon Aristoza, Jr. urged the media “not only to help
PhilHealth in promoting the National Health Insurance Program but also help us
curb and report fraud.” He said that
this activity brings in the intended participants as advocates of the program.

During the SHInES for LCEs, Governor Ma. Angela
Rosedell Amante-Matba of Agusan del Norte enthusiastically shared how the
provincial government was able to make the no balance billing (NBB) really work
in local government-owned Cabadbaran District Hospital, citing success factors
such as prudent use of the revolving fund as well as retraining of hospital
employees to make them more efficient in assisting PhilHealth members. The governor challenged her colleagues in the
region to do the same and implement the no balance billing in hospitals in
their respective localities to help alleviate the financial woes of poor
patients.“I challenge other LGUs to implement the no balance billing for poor
patient-members in their area,” Matba said.

PhilHealth president and chief executive officer
Alexander A. Padilla mentioned that “for the last seven months we have been
going around the country to conduct this activity to really impart the
importance of the new NHI Act of 2013 which espouses a paradigm shift in the
implementation of the program.” The PhilHealth chief also shared that “five
years ago, PhilHealth was giving out P300 to P400 million a week but at
present, we are paying about P1.7 billion a week in reimbursements.” With this
trend, PhilHealth benefit payments may reach around P100 billion at the end of
this year.

Padilla urged the LCEs to go beyond the election
fever and “be responsible for those who are enrolled in their LGUs and push for
the enrollment of Barangay Health Workers and Nutrition Scholars for them to be
part of the program.” Making reference to the policy on Accredited Collecting
Agents for PhilHealth, the PhilHealth Chief said that the local government
units are the perfect collection windows through which premium payments from
all PhilHealth members in their localities may be received.

The SHInES aims to further the knowledge and
awareness of PhilHealth’s external partners on the NHIP to make them strong and
effective advocates of the program. (PhilHealth/PIA-Caraga)